The Liberal and National parties are reconsidering their breakup and have held off on announcing senior positions within their parties, opening up a possibility of repairing the alliance.
In recent days, accounts of the demands that led to the split between the two parties have differed.
Liberal leader Sussan Ley met her Nationals counterpart David Littleproud earlier today, with the future of the Coalition still hanging in the balance.
Here’s the latest.
Breakup
The Coalition is a formal, long-standing alliance between the Liberal and National parties. It’s a long-held convention at a federal level.
The last time the Coalition broke up was in 1987, after the leader of the Country Party in Queensland (now the Nationals), sought to become Coalition leader instead of a Liberal.
The separation lasted five months.
Earlier this week, the National Party announced it wouldn’t enter a formal coalition agreement with the Liberals following the election defeat on 3 May.
Nationals leader David Littleproud identified four policy areas the party wanted to be included in the Coalition’s platform.
These included lifting the national ban on nuclear power and keeping a $20 billion regional fund pledge announced during the election campaign.
Liberal leader Sussan Ley had said every policy was up for review, and wouldn’t commit to specific proposals.
Cabinet solidarity
A Cabinet is a small group of senior ministers who have responsibility over certain areas of government.
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The Opposition has a Shadow Cabinet, with shadow ministers for each government portfolio.
Members of the Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet are bound by ‘solidarity’: they must not publicly disagree with party decisions.
Ley said the Nationals had pushed to dump cabinet solidarity as part of the coalition agreement talks.
Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie disputed Ley's claims.
The latest
Ley and Littleproud held talks this morning at Parliament House where they pledged to reconsider the split.
After the meeting, Ley released a statement saying: “The Nationals are willing to accept Shadow Cabinet solidarity as part of a Coalition Agreement”.
“This is the first time this commitment has been made,” she added.
Speaking to reporters, Littleproud said cabinet solidarity wasn’t discussed with Nationals MPs and Senators ahead of the breakup announcement.
Both parties agreed to hold off on announcing which MPs would oversee which portfolios.
If the Coalition remains split, the Liberal Party would become the official Opposition party because it has more MPs and Senators (52 in total, based on the latest election count). Liberals would then fill all the official “shadow ministry” positions.
The Nationals would have spokespeople for different policy areas, but would not be recognised as the official opposition.
